Covitality and life satisfaction: a multilevel analysis of bullying experiences and their relation with School attachment

Adolescent mental health research highlights the importance of individual strengths and well-being, which have been organized by different conceptual models. The covitality model is one example that proposes a meta-construct integrating different domains. Even though some prior research examines the relationship between covitality and bullying, there is a research gap regarding the specific mechanisms involved. In this study, we examined how school bullying may be associated with covitality and life satisfaction and how this relationship may be mediated by school attachment. We used a multilevel analysis with 1,697 students (51% female, age: M = 12.25, SD = 2.11) from 62 classrooms in Chile. Our results show that at the individual level, victims of bullying report lower levels of well-being and covitality, which is explained by lower levels of school attachment. Bullying was also associated with higher levels of life satisfaction and covitality at the classroom level, and the relationship with covitality may also be partly explained by school attachment. These results underscore the importance of bullying prevention at the individual and the classroom level and the relevance of contextual variables in understanding its effects.